Wave generators are often used for recreational purposes. Wave generators create one or more waves in a pool or the like, and people typically either play in the waves or use the waves for aquatic sports such as board sports. Aquatic board sports, such as surfing and bodyboarding, require that the waves be rideable. Enthusiasts in these types of sports often use wave generators for competition, practice and entertainment.
Existing wave generators typically use wave generating chambers to produce a wave that travels in a direction where the peak of the wave is substantially parallel to the chambers and to the beach as it travels from the chambers towards the beach, and the wave is produced when the wave generating chambers (either one chamber or multiple chambers) are all activated simultaneously, resulting in the water being pushed away from the wave generating chambers. The wave then travels away from the chamber until it reaches the opposite end of the pool, breaking at some point between the wave generating chamber and the opposite end of the pool. The waves that are created from these chambers, however, always require single or multiple chambers to actuate simultaneously in unison. The waves can only be ridden for only a short period of time and distance because after the wave is created, it begins to decrease in amplitude and quickly becomes not rideable. Japan App. No. 04-037314 (JPO Publication No. 05-202626) discloses a pool that produces waves that travel in a perpendicular direction from one side toward the other side of the pool. The side walls of the pool are in a fan shape to allow people to ride the wave longer and avoid hitting the wall. This apparatus, however, only produces single waves that travel perpendicularly away from generating apparatus until the wave reaches the opposite end of the pool, and does not teach sequencing. That apparatus attempts to provide for a longer ride on the wave by simply angling the walls in a fan shape, but does not compensate for the wave losing amplitude and strength.
Other types of wave generating pools use a high velocity sheet of water shot over a bed form in the shape of a wave. These are not “true” waves, but rather water shaped into a wave. An example includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,280 which discloses a “Sheet Flow Water Ride.” There are several shortcoming with this prior art. First, a conventional surf board with fins cannot be used, because the fins would extend too deeply into the sheet flow of water and touch the bed form underneath. Second, the bed form is static, such that only one type of “wave” can be produced.
What is needed is an apparatus that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art, including providing an apparatus that can create a variety of rideable waves, and can further provide the rider with the ability to customize the wave characteristics, including the wave's size, shape, and pattern.